17th DEGREE

In an attempt to post more on this site about stuff I find interesting, I think I’ll try doing a few ‘link round-up’ type of link lists.

• IE8 has changed it’s default rendering for sites - There was a lot of online yelling about their previous stance. It’s nice that they’ve changed to be more forward-facing.
• Speaking of IE8, there is a standalone beta of IE8 available - I’m installing this as I write this, actually. Updated: Not a standalone, damn it.
• The Acid3 test is ready - The Acid3 test is just like the Acid 2 tests, only for DOM scripting. This should help browser creators standardize on some functionality. You know, stuff that should already be standardized.
• Google Gears for Mobile platforms has been released - I’ve been meaning to look into Google Gears for the desktop for a while now, not to mention looking more into mobile, too.
• Zend Framework will be included in the next version of Ubuntu - We currently use the Zend Framework here at work and it’s done a lot of helpful things for us, especially the DB package. And while I don’t personally use Ubuntu, it’s nice that it’s being included.

I came across an interesting quirk in PHP today. The way a nested ternary operator is evaluated in PHP is unlike that of any other language I’ve come across: left to right.

Ex:

<?php
$test = 'one';
echo $test == 'one' ? 'one' :  $test == 'two' ? 'two' : 'three';
?>

What do you suppose that prints? Wrong, the answer is ‘two’. Let’s break this down in how it is working, shall we.

<?php
$test = 'one';
echo $test == ‘one’ ? ‘one’ :  $test == ‘two’ ? ‘two’ : ‘three’;
?>

Here, I’ve emphasized the first ternary operation. What PHP will do is evaluate this section and return a value, in this case it is the string ‘one’. The boolean value of the string ‘one’ is true. So, for the second ternary operation, ‘two’ gets selected.

No other language I know of acts like this.

Hopes this help someone one day.

At work we use tons of open source software. Off the top of my head, I can name15:

1. Gentoo, both desktop and server
2. Apache 2
3. Subversion
4. MySQL
5. OpenLDAP
6. Zend Framework
7. phpMyAdmin
8. phpLDAPadmin
9. MediaWiki
10. Aptana
11. PuTTy
12. Mozilla Firefox
13. Mozilla Thunderbird
14. Open Office
15. trixbox

That last one, trixbox, made the news recently when it was recently discovered that the software contacts a Fonality server once every 24 hours by itself. This process sends information about the hardware setup it’s running on and a few configuration details. This is all done via allowing a remote server to execute root-privileged commands on the local box. You can read this forum thread for more details.

The problem here is mainly that no one knew any of this was happening.  So, naturally, when people find out about it, they feel duped.  Now, this certainly should have been a better described “feature”, sure.  But, I’m not overly concerned about it.  The script doesn’t gather anything like phone numbers or email addresses.  The theoretical problem is if this “feature” was abused in some way.  It looks like their in the process of updating this part of their system and I’m satisfied with the changes they’re making to correct the potential problems with it.